Positioning, Navigation, and Book Accessing/Returning in an Autonomous Library Robot using Integrated Binocular...

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Library Science

Background:

• Manual library operations like book accessing and returning (BAR) are being automated by robots.
• Current robots struggle with high-precision tasks due to limitations in positioning and navigation (P&N) technologies and accumulated errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an autonomous library robot capable of high-precision BAR operations.
• To improve robot P&N accuracy by combining binocular vision and QR code identification.

Main Methods:

• Integrated binocular vision for dynamic map construction, autonomous P&N, and obstacle avoidance.
• Utilized QR code identification for robot error correction and robotic arm BAR operation determination.
• Conducted simulations and experiments to validate the proposed technique and robot.

Main Results:

• The combined technique significantly improved P&N and BAR operation accuracies.
• Reduced overall BAR operation time.
• The autonomous robot demonstrated effectiveness and robustness in simulations and experiments.

Conclusions:

• The proposed combination of binocular vision and QR codes is an effective solution for enhancing robot P&N and BAR operations.
• The developed autonomous robot is fully autonomous, cost-effective, and has potential applications beyond libraries.